Iain Carter: Brooks Koepka is the perfect modern golfing machine

Among active players on tour only Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson have won more majors than US PGA champion Brooks Koepka.

Sunday's fourth major triumph from his last eight starts means the American heads to the US Open knowing another successful title defence would put him alongside Mickelson for victories in the tournaments that matter most.

We must also regard Koepka as the most likely to make significant inroads into Woods' current tally of 15 majors.

He is now an undisputed golfing superstar, having drawn level with Rory McIlroy's quartet of crowns. And he has all the momentum the Northern Irishman currently lacks.

Who would bet against Koepka at Pebble Beach next month?

The 29-year-old Floridian has won the last two US Opens and now successive PGA Championships with his two-shot triumph at Bethpage on Sunday.

Koepka is a perfect modern golfing machine. He possesses the athletic strength and balance that is essential for today's power game.

Launch it long to leave the shortest route to the green - that is the ethos that dominates modern golf, where par fours stretch beyond 500 yards, par fives are elongated even further and meaningful doglegs are almost extinct.

No one is better equipped for such demands. Through the first three days at the PGA, when Koepka built a seven-stroke advantage, he utterly dominated from tee to green.

If his drives found the fairways then all well and good, but if his ball came to rest in the rough he had the strength to gouge it out and continue to make largely unencumbered progress.

This is why as much preparatory work is done in the gym as on the range by today's golfing stars. It is a power game where speed and strength are the essential commodities.

Course set-ups demand this. From the moment Woods arrived on the scene two decades ago - overpowering Augusta, St Andrews and Pebble Beach - the authorities set about trying to "Tiger-proof" courses.

They installed new tees to lengthen yardages and grew rough to narrow fairways. Bethpage was the archetypal legacy course from the era when Woods transformed the game.

The irony is that the changes have played into the hands of the biggest hitters.

Armed with modern equipment - forgiving saucepan-headed drivers with generous sweet spots and balls that fly forever - supreme athletes now rule the golfing world.